January 27, 1967
Apollo 1
A command module on the pad at Cape Kennedy, half past six in the evening
Died that day
3They were at work, or on their way, or had gone in after somebody.
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Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee were sealed in the command module for a launch rehearsal. The test was rated non-hazardous: no fuel in the rocket, no pyrotechnics armed. The cabin was pressurised with pure oxygen above atmospheric pressure.
A spark somewhere in the wiring below Grissom's seat started a fire that filled the cabin in seconds. The hatch opened inward and was held shut by the pressure inside. The pad crew could not reach them.
They died in about half a minute. The programme stopped for twenty months and the spacecraft was rebuilt around what was learned - a hatch that opened outward in seven seconds, and no pure oxygen at sea level again.